BIRD.I was set up by in 2016 by Corentin Guillo when he was working in aerospace, aggregating satellite images. He realised there was a large number of satellites taking images all the time, which were going directly into huge databases that were not accessible to the mass market. Alice Ritchie joined in May this year as marketing manager, bringing the firm’s staff total to 15. Bird.i now works with various satellite imagery providers all over the world and analyses satellite imagery to provide insights for professionals in industries like construction, as well as for individuals who want more regularly updated images of the world than Google Maps can provide.

Names: Corentin Guillo (36) and Alice Ritchie (29)

Positions: CEO and marketing manager

WHAT’S YOUR BUSINESS CALLED?
Bird.i

WHERE IS IT BASED?
Glasgow

WHY DID YOU SET UP THE BUSINESS?
Corentin: I have 12 years of experience working in the space industry. I began my career in the space industry in France before moving to England in 2009, and then moved from Oxford to Glasgow in 2016. Going back to 10 years ago Google Earth was just hitting the mass market and the imagery was poor and out of date. I wanted to bring the value of fresh, up-to-date imagery to the mass market.

HOW DOES IT WORK?
Alice: We curate lots of different satellite images from various providers, and put them in one place for business users to consume. One of the key industries we work with at the moment is the construction industry. You can search for latitude or longitude and type in the area. You can choose the latest imagery or go back in time. We are working with companies to make a construction tracker. We want to create a model than detects changes on a construction site, wanting to keep an eye on progress. The tracker can alert you to a change in an area and you can monitor progress with different sites. We also offer an API plugin where images are automatically pulled through into your software. We are trying to create a machine learning initiative can detect different stages production is at. It can be fed images of different situations.

HOW IS IT DIFFERENT FROM COMPETING BUSINESSES?
Alice: Previously if you wanted a satellite image of Glasgow Cathedral, for example, you would have to buy an image of central Scotland just for that small area. That could cost you thousands of pounds. Using this information the barriers to getting it are so high. The minimum order value is always going to cost a lot of money. Our customers have credits and can choose what parts of images they want. Previously this information was only available to industries like police and the military because they have a higher budget. The imagery can be years out of date on Google Maps.

WHAT IS YOUR TARGET MARKET?
Corentin:
It is based on customer demand. Businesses always come back with more questions like how has location changed over time. It is not just businesses using the service but also individuals.

Alice: There are a lot of customers in the Middle East as there’s lots of construction going on there. It is really valuable for us to help different industries.

WHAT DO YOU ENJOY MOST ABOUT RUNNING THE BUSINESS?
Alice: It is interesting because it is a startup. I have learned so much about space technology. It is always changing and it’s a really exciting place to be in.

Corentin: The thing I like the most is the people. We are still a startup and I have been exposed to so much culture. We have 15 employees and 12 different nationalities in the office so it is a rich experience.

WHERE DO YOU HOPE THE BUSINESS WILL BE IN 10 YEARS’ TIME?
Corentin: The best way to determine where we will be in 10 years is to look at the GPS. It came out 14 years ago and today you will struggle to find a phone that doesn’t have GPS. In 10 years’ time it will have evolved even more and we will evolve with it. Glasgow is becoming the space capital of Europe. There are more spacecrafts built in Glasgow than anywhere else in Europe at about 8 to 10 a week.

Alice: Glasgow is a small city but it’s so powerful.